Controlled flight into terrain

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A piece of the remains of Air New Zealand Flight 901, which crashed in 1979. All 257 people on the plane were killed.

Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) describes a collision whereby an airworthy aircraft, under pilot control, inadvertently flies into terrain, an obstacle, or water. The term was developed by engineers at Boeing in the late 1970s.^{[citation needed]} The pilots are generally unaware of the danger until it is too late.

In civil and especially in private aviation, CFIT may be humorously referred to as the result of "rock-filled clouds" or "cumulogranite" (a portmanteau of the terms cumulus, or "cloud", and granite) when it is caused by terrain being obscured by clouds.^[1] It is sometimes described as "the act of flying a perfectly good aircraft into the ground."

Pilots with any level of experience, even highly experienced professionals, may commit CFIT. Pilot fatigue, loss of situational awareness, or disorientation may play a role. The incidents often involve a collision with significantly raised terrain such as hills or mountains, and may occur in conditions of clouds or otherwise reduced visibility. CFIT often occurs during aircraft descent to landing, near an airport.

CFIT may be associated with equipment malfunction. If the malfunction occurs in a piece of navigational equipment, it may mislead the crew into improperly guiding the aircraft despite other information received from all properly functioning equipment, or despite clear sky visibility that should have allowed the crew to easily notice ground proximity (compare tunnel vision). In other cases, the usually minor malfunction does not affect the overall airworthiness of the plane, but may distract the crew from properly guiding the plane.

In order to prevent the occurrence of CFIT accidents, manufacturers and safety regulators developed Terrain awareness and warning systems, also known as TAWS. The first-generation of these TAWS systems is known as Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS), and uses a radar altimeter to assist in calculating terrain closure rates. This system has now been further improved with the addition of a GPS terrain database. Now known as Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), both systems have mandatory pilot procedures and actions following any caution or warning event.^[2]

Statistics show that aircraft fitted with a second-generation EGPWS have not suffered a CFIT accident.^[3] As of 2007, 5% of the world's commercial airlines still lack a TAWS, leading to a prediction of two CFIT accidents in 2009.^[3]

[edit] Notable accidents

Many notable accidents have been ascribed to CFIT.

The famous crash of the Star Dust airliner on August 2, 1947. Due to a misjudgment of position, the flight crew appear to have believed that the aircraft was approaching the airport of Santiago, when in fact it was still above Tupungato mountain in the Andes. The plane vanished shortly after its last transmission estimating the time of its arrival at Santiago. Its wreckage was discovered fifty years later.

The Superga air disaster, 4 May 1949, in which almost the entire Torino A.C. football team was killed in a collision with the hill of Superga, near Turin.

Pan Am Flight 151—June 21, 1951

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810—December 9, 1956

Northeast Airlines Flight 823—February 1, 1957

1958 Bristol Britannia 312 crash—24 December, 1958‎

American Airlines Flight 320—February 3, 1959

TAA Fokker Friendship disaster—June 10, 1960

Alitalia Flight 771—July 7, 1962

United Airlines Flight 389—Aug 16, 1965

American Airlines Flight 383—Nov 8, 1965

The crash of Southern Airways Flight 932 in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, on November 14, 1970. All 75 on board, including 37 members of the Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, and four crew members, died in the accident. The plane was destroyed. It was to approach Tri-State Airport. We Are Marshall, a film about this accident and its aftermath, was released in 2006.

Survivors amongst the wreckage of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 — known less formally as the Andes flight disaster, October 13, 1972 to December 23, 1972

The crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 near Miami, Florida on December 29, 1972. The captain, first officer, and flight engineer had become fixated on a faulty landing gear light and had failed to realize that the autopilot had been switched off. The distracted flight crew did not recognize the plane's slow descent and the otherwise completely airworthy aircraft struck the ground in the Everglades, killing 101 out of 176 passengers and crew.

Delta Air Lines Flight 723—July 31, 1973

TWA Flight 514—Dec 1, 1974

The crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 into Mount Erebus, Antarctica on November 28, 1979. There is still disagreement over the exact causes of the crash, but it is commonly accepted that a changing of preprogrammed coordinates, the pilots' loss of situational awareness and whiteout conditions at the time were contributory factors leading to the crash. All 257 people on the plane were killed.

Air India Flight 855—January 1, 1978

Mt. San Pietro disaster—December 1, 1981. Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, on route from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Ajaccio, Corsica, France, crashed into the mountains of Corsica shortly before it was scheduled to land in Ajaccio. All 180 people on board were killed.

Avianca Flight 011—November 27, 1983

Eastern Air Lines Flight 980—January 1, 1985 struck Mount Illimani in Bolivia at an altitude of 19,600 feet. The flight took off from Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asunción, Paraguay, and intended to reach El Alto International Airport in La Paz, Bolivia. All 19 passengers and 10 crew were killed on impact.

Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 air disaster—October 19, 1986, resulting in the death of Mozambican president Samora Machel and 33 others

Avianca Flight 410—March 17, 1988

The crash of Indian Airlines Flight 113 on October 19, 1988 at Ahmedabad, India. The aircraft hit an electric mast five miles (eight km) out on approach in poor visibility. All six crew members and 124 of 129 passengers were killed.

Independent Air Flight 1851—February 8, 1989

Surinam Airways Flight PY764—June 7, 1989

The crash of Indian Airlines Flight 605 on 14 February 1990. The plane crashed into a golf course 2300 feet short of the runway during final approach to Bangalore, killing 92 on board.

59 days before the PIA Flight 268 accident at Kathmandu (see next item), Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed on approach to Kathmandu. All 111 people on board were killed.

Wreckage Of PIA FLIGHT PK-268.

The crash of Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 on approach to Kathmandu on September 28, 1992. The approach to Kathmandu is difficult, as the airport is located in an oval-shaped valley surrounded by mountains. Flight 268 was approximately 900 feet below the designated approach path and crashed into a steep cloud-covered hillside. All 167 people on the plane were killed.

Ansett New Zealand Flight 703—June 5, 1995

American Airlines Flight 1572—Nov 12, 1995

The crash of American Airlines Flight 965 on December 20, 1995. The Boeing 757-223 crashed into tree-covered mountainous terrain near Cali, Colombia. The crew failed to recognize a series of navigational errors they had made, and forgot that they had deployed the air brakes. All eight crew members and 152 of the 156 passengers were killed.

Vnukovo Flight 2801—August 29, 1996

Korean Air Flight 801 August 6, 1997

1996 New Hampshire Learjet crash—lost December 24, 1996; found November 13, 1999

Crossair Flight 3597 was an AVRO RJ100, registration HB-IXM, on a scheduled flight from Berlin, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland that crashed during its landing approach towards Zurich International Airport on November 24, 2001, killing 24 people.